Spring TV 2012: Your Friday night survival guide!

Spring TV 2012: Your Friday night survival guide!

Spring TV 2012: Your Friday night survival guide!

January 13, 2012DAVE Q

TGIF! We’ve been checking out the Spring 2012 TV season with the ultimate Survival Guide, seeing what to watch, DVR, stream, and read about, and ignore on TV! We’ve already covered Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Let’s see what Friday has to offer!

WHAT TO WATCH LIVE:

It’s Friday. Get up of the couch and go out. And if you want to stay home, catch up on all that stuff you’ve been DVRing all week or watch some of the shows below, live.

WHAT TO DVR:

Kitchen Nightmares Gordon Ramsay travels the country yelling at shitty business owners with failing restaurants. Sure, Gordon’s an asshole, and the owners are probably more interested in the free makeover by the Fox team than actually changing. But hey – at least the show’s entertaining! And although Gordon can be a total jerk sometimes, you can’t argue that he isn’t right!

Grimm No one is shocked more than I am having Grimm on this list. NBC’s fantasy – which is most simply described as a show about a detective who investigates supernatural cases – was one of the shows I thought you should ignore in the fall. But one day I had nothing to watch, so I rewatched the pilot and the second episode. And next thing I knew, I made it through the entire season, surprised about just how much fun I was having. If you wrote it off originally, I’d give it another chance. You’ll be surprised too how much fun you’ll have watching Grimm.

Fringe I’ve really loved Fox’s Fringe … up until this season. For some reason, I’m just let down by the direction it’s going. But I’m not fool – there’s no chance Fringe is returning next season. The ratings have been horrendous. So watching the rest of the season is time well spent.

Real Time with Bill Maher I like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report well enough, but HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher beats them all. Bill is a genius – each episode opens my mind in the right kind of ways.

Portlandia Fred Armisn (SNL) and Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney) have become all the rage recently. And for good reason too. Their IFC show Portlandia, now in its second season, is producing some of the best comedy on TV these days. Though it might be the internet they actually have to thank. Clips from season one quickly become web sensations, and Netflix instant-streaming helped expose folks to a show they probably wouldn’t have normally seen on IFC. If you haven’t seen it, I’d suggest giving it a view. It’s a perfect takedown of hipster culture, organic living, and a whole bunch of white people problems.

WHAT TO WATCH ONLINE:

Nothing worth streaming tonight. Enjoy your evening off!

WHAT TO READ ABOUT ONLINE THE NEXT DAY:

They don’t have very intense plots, but the Spartacus shows always have a fair amount of nudity. Search around the internet and you’ll see all the neekedness without any of that silly plot.